I will freely admit that I was late to the Don DeLillo
party. The problem with being late to the DeLillo party is that it’s a daunting
task to begin. He’s quite prolific, so knowing where to begin is key. Now,
having said that, I have no idea what book is best to start with; I will just
tell you how I jumped in. Let’s take a deep breath because brothers and
sisters…we are diving in.
White Noise was the first novel I read by DeLillo because when I
came out to a co-worker as not having read any of his books, this was the
one that was recommended. I wish I read this in a book group because there are
dozens of great topics for discussion, such as conspiracy theories, violence,
twenty-four hour media cycles, and our obsession with consuming goods. 
Now, what I did next was panic because I had been living on
this planet for nearly forty years and had only read one DeLillo book, and now
realized it was a huge mistake and needed to get a move on. I chose Libra because it was the next novel he
wrote and at that time I thought, oh hell, I’ll just finish this guy’s library.
Libra imagines the life of Lee Harvey
Oswald and what may have led up to the assassination of JFK. If you like a
little conspiracy CIA plot in your books, this is excellent. 
Next I chose Mao II
which is about a reclusive writer (think Salinger) who spends his life writing
a novel he refuses to finish (once published it will cease to be art). Themes of violence and commercialism abound; this
is my favorite DeLillo book.
Writing this, I realize that all of these books are really
great for book groups--tons of stuff to discuss, all incredibly relevant. So in
my opinion these are all good jumping off places for DeLillo and it’s a safe
bet you will read more than one of his books.
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